Sunday, April 14, 2013

Washington State Woman Starts Bigfoot-Tracking Club

KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) - Jaymi Trimble's fascination with Bigfoot began
when she watched the famous Patterson-Gimlin film at the Princess
Theatre in downtown Prosser.

She was 11, and became "totally intrigued," she said.She
still is. Trimble, now 49, is starting a group in the Tri-Cities for
people who want to read about, research and track the mysterious
creature, also called Sasquatch.

The first meeting of her
Northwest Bigfoot group is 1 p.m. Sunday at the Mid-Columbia Libraries'
branch at 1620 Union St., Kennewick. Bill Laughery, a former game warden
and Bigfoot tracker whom Trimble calls a mentor, is scheduled to
appear.

"I know that there's interest in our community. I thought
this would be a great way for people to get together, share ideas and
go out (on treks)," Trimble said.

She has read dozens of books on
Bigfoot and spent hundreds of hours researching in the field. She said
she's found tracks in the Blue Mountains, making casts of two of them,
each 16 to 18 inches long. She said she alsohas heard vocalizations - "a
very unusual, distinctive sound" she describes as a combination of a
horse cough and braying.

But if the species really exists,
roaming the wilderness, how has it stayed hidden so long? Trimble has
heard that question before. Think about the panda, she said; so familiar
now, the black-and-white bear wasn't widely known until the last
century.

She
points to the work of Melba Ketchum, a Texas scientist who says a
five-year DNA study proves a "novel hominin hybrid species," or Bigfoot,
exists in North America.

Trimble, a mother of three, lives in
rural Benton County. She has a master's degree in history and was
working as a writer when she was hit by a car while riding her bike
almost four years ago, she said. She was seriously hurt, with head and
bodily injuries, and sought refuge in the Blue Mountains as she
recovered, she said.

Her time in the mountains helped her rebuild
self-confidence and reignited an interest in Bigfoot that was sparked
when she was a girl.

"The first summer out, I found my first track. It (was) like, what is this?" she said. "It just went from there."

Trimble also runs a summertime Bigfoot Boot Camp in the Blue Mountains for families.